Angelus' Quote: Leaders Turn a Vision Into Reality

Leaders turn a vision into reality. Currently, I'm reading a book The Leader In You and I find that this short story is fascinating. Mother Teresa was a young Catholic nun, teaching high school in an upper-middle-class section of Calcutta, India. But she kept looking out the window and seeing the lepers on the street.

"I saw fear in their eyes,” she said. "The fear they would never be loved, the fear they would never get adequate medical attention." She could not shake that fear out of her mind. She knew she had to leave the comfort and security of the convent, go out into the streets and set up homes for the lepers and the poor of the poorest. Over the years, Mother Teresa and the people of Missionaries of Charity have cared for more than 149,000 (as 1993) people with leprosy, depending on medical attention and unconditional love.

Mother Teresa as an example of a leader? Why not? She makes things happen, she turns a vision into reality and leads thousands of volunteers to love the unloved. That's leadership! 😇😉❤ #ServeToLead

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/

IG: https://instagram.com/legasi.tv/

Blog: https://www.richardangelus.me/

Say No to Abortion: Bring Back the Child

Below is an excerpted text from Mother Teresa’s speech at National Prayer Breakfast Speech, Washington, D.C. (5^th February 1994). I find that it is both inspiring and challenging speech on abortion that we have to address to the world or at least in our community today:

“… I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us so, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.

....By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.

....Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India and with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today – abortion which brings people to such blindness.

....And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere – ‘Let us bring the child back’ the child is God’s gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things – to love and to be loved.”

Do you love life?

Do you love God?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Let People See Jesus through Us

Healing touch: Mother Teresa and Sisters with patients at a mobile leprosy clinic in Kolkata

I like what I read from Mother Teresa, she writes:

“Once, someone asked me, ‘Why do you go abroad? Don’t you have enough poor in India?’ So I answered, ‘I think Jesus told us to go and preach to all the nations.’ That is why we go all over the world to preach his love and compassion.

When our Sisters were in Ceylon, a minister of state once told me something very surprising. He said, ‘You know, Mother, I love Jesus Christ but I hate Christians.’ So I asked him how that could be. He answered, ‘Because Christians do not give us Christ; they do not live their Christian lives to the full.’ Mahatma Gandhi said something very similar, ‘If Christians were to live their Christian lives to the full, there would not be one Hindu left in India.’ Isn’t it very true? This love of Christ should urge us to spend ourselves without ceasing.

A Mohammedan Mulvi was standing with Father Gabric and looking at a Sister bandaging the wound of a leper with so much love. She didn’t say anything, but she did something. He turned to Father and said, ‘All these years I believed that Jesus was a prophet, but today I know He is God because He has given so much love into the hands of this Sister.’ Even today, that Sister does not know that her action brought Jesus into the life of that man.”

The light, O Jesus, will be all from you – none of it will be mine.

It will be you shining on others through me.

Shine through me and be so in me

that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see Jesus.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

This is Where We are Most Unjust to the Poor - We Don't Know Them!

On Our Life of Service and Evangelization, Mother Teresa writes:

“Sometime ago a man came to our house and said: ‘Mother, there is a Hindu family that has eight children. They have not eaten for a long time. Do something for them.’ So I took some rice and went. When I arrived at their house, I could see the hunger in the children’s eyes. Their eyes were shining with hunger. I gave the rice to the mother. She took it and divided it into two, and she went out. When she came back, I asked her, ‘Where did you go?’ she said, ‘They are hungry too.’ Her neighbors were also hungry. What struck me most was not that she gave the rice but she knew they were hungry. Because she knew, she shared. I did not bring more rice that night. I waited until the next morning so that they could experience the joy of sharing and loving.

Love, to be true, has to hurt, and this woman who was hungry – she knew that her neighbor was also hungry. That family happened to be a Mohammedan family. It was so touching, so real. This is where we are most unjust to our poor – we don’t know them. We don’t know how great they are, how loveable, how hungry for that understanding love. Today God loves the world through you and through me. Are we that love and that compassion? God proves that Christ loves us – that He has come to be his Father’s compassion. Today God loves the world through you and through me and through all those who are his love and compassion in the world.” And I [Richard] say, Amen.

[Quote from Mother Teresa: Contemplative at the Heart of the World. Page 118-119]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Do We Treat the Poor as Our Dustbins to Give Whatever We Cannot Use or Eat?

In the book Mother Teresa: Contemplative at the Heart of the World, she writes,

“Do we treat the poor as our dustbins to give whatever we cannot use or eat? I cannot eat this food so I will give it to the poor. I cannot use this thing or that piece of cloth so I will give it to the poor. Am I then sharing the poverty of the poor? Do I identify myself with the poor I serve? Am I one with them? Do I share with them as Jesus shared with me?

This is the wonderful part of our vocation, that as M.C.s (The Missionary of Charity Sisters, she founded) we have created an awareness of the poor in the whole world. Twenty years ago no one would believe that there were hungry, naked men and women around. Today the whole world knows our poor because of our work. Because they know they want to share.

The other day, a group of Hindu school children came from very far. They had won prizes in a contest at school and had asked the headmistress to give them money instead of the prizes. Then they said, ‘Now, take us to Mother Teresa. We want to give this money to her poor people.’ How wonderful it was that they did not use that money for themselves! Because we have created this awareness the whole world wants to share with the poor.

Whenever I accept money or an award, I always take it in the name of the poor, whom they recognize in me. What am I? I am nothing. It is the poor whom they recognize in me and that they want to give to, because they see what we do. Today people in the world want to see. Why is our congregation spread all over the world today? It is because people see what we do: feeding the hungry Christ, clothing the naked Christ, taking care of the sick, the dying, the leprosy patients (she was referring to Matthew 25:34-36). Because they see, they believe. How sad it will be if we are not sincere in what we do.

Our poor people suffer much, and unless we go with joy we cannot help them. We will make them more miserable.”

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Go to God like a Little Child

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1)

Quote from Mother Teresa: Contemplative at the Heart of the World;

“Where can I learn to pray? Jesus taught us: “Pray like this: Our Father… Thy will be done… Forgive us as we forgive.” It is so simple yet so beautiful. If we pray the “Our Father” and live it, we will be holy. Everything is there: God, myself, my neighbour. If I forgive, then I can be holy and can pray… All this comes from a humble heart, and if we have this we will know how to love God, to love self and neighbour.

This is not complicated, and yet we complicate our lives so much, by so many additions. Just one thing counts: to be humble, to pray. The more you pray, the better you will pray. How do you pray? You should go to God like a little child. A child has no difficulty expressing his little mind in simple words which say so much. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Become as a little child.” If we pray the gospel, we will allow Christ to grow in us.

One thing is necessary for us – confession. Confession is nothing but humility in action. We called it penance, but really it is a sacrament of love, a sacrament of forgiveness. That is why confession should not be a place in which to talk for long hours about out difficulties. It is a place where I allow Jesus to take away from me everything that divides, that destroys. When there is a gap between me and Christ, when my love is divided, anything can come to fill the gap. We should be very simple and childlike in confession. “Here I am as a child going to her Father.” If a child is not yet spoiled and has not learned to tell lies, he will tell everything. This is what I mean by being childlike. Confession is a beautiful act of great love. Only in confession can we go as sinners with sin and come out as sinners without sin.”

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Serve 'the Poor' among Us Freely

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” (Jesus Christ, in Matthew 25:35-36 NLT)

“Feeding the hungry Christ. Clothing the naked Christ. Visiting the sick Christ. Giving shelter to the homeless Christ, Teaching the ignorant Christ.”(Mother Teresa)

Over the world people are saying that Mother Teresa is spoiling the poor by giving them things free. At a seminary in Bangalore, once a nun said to her,
“Mother Teresa, you are spoiling the poor people by giving them things free. They are losing their human dignity.”

When everyone was quiet, she said calmly,

“No one spoils as much as God Himself. See the wonderful gifts He has given us freely. All of you here have no glasses, yet you all can see. If God were to take money for your sight, what would happen? Continually we are breathing and living on oxygen that we do not pay for. What would happen if God were to say, ‘If you work four hours, you will get sunshine for two hours?’ How many of us would then survive?”

Then she also told them, “There are many congregations who spoil the rich; it is good to have one congregation in the name of the poor, to spoil the poor”

There was profound silence; nobody said a word after that.

Though I have many disagreements about her theology and doctrines (I simply can’t ignore that), I find that reading the writings and stories of Mother Teresa is very inspiring. She was really an example of faith translate into actions. From the Word to head to heart to hand. Her story above is so significant for me.  We must serve people with love and freely – as God love us gracefully. Freely we are given, freely we shall give. See and serve ‘the poor’ both spiritually and materially as if we are serving Christ. Oh yes, Father help me to obey your Word joyfully! Amen.

“I tell you the truth,
when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,
you were doing it to me!”
(Jesus Christ, Matthew 25:40, NLT)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.